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Hello bee lover! You’ve found your way over our logo on a honey product to us and would like to learn more about the bees in the US who are responsible for your honey. Click through the history of the bees and receive prepared scientific investigations around the bee and honey world. In addition, you can learn about the health of the bees and what is buzzing through the United States.

The development of honey production and the price of honey, habitat of bees, hazards for bees and, above all, which bees are there anyway? All this shows the bee-aware.

Fly off, there is a lot to discover!

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The Story

Health Status

The Honey Bee

North Dakota - Honey El Dorado

StateName	Region	totalprod_kg
North Dakota	Midwest	373016269
California	West	288103767
South Dakota	Midwest	231926798
Florida	South	204637317
Montana	West	130721709
Minnesota	Midwest	127105217
Texas	South	94892897
Michigan	Midwest	68044307
Wisconsin	Midwest	64296273
Idaho	West	59617014
New York	Northeast	49212964
Louisiana	South	46936384
Nebraska	Midwest	44917897
Georgia	South	44640752
Washington	West	35875532
Arkansas	South	34203591
Wyoming	West	31339608
Oregon	West	29829599
Iowa	Midwest	29723458
Arizona	West	27153857
Colorado	West	24714437
Mississippi	South	17467391
Utah	West	16188714
Ohio	Midwest	15175388
Pennsylvania	Northeast	14513143
Hawaii	West	13045318
Missouri	Midwest	12737783
Kansas	Midwest	9710053
Alabama	South	9193865
New Mexico	West	7061981
North Carolina	South	7024786
Illinois	Midwest	6988952
Indiana	Midwest	6326707
West Virginia	South	5010836
Tennessee	South	4748206
Nevada	West	4580830
New Jersey	Northeast	4491472
Vermont	Northeast	4409826
South Carolina	South	3972562
Maine	Northeast	3842835
Virginia	South	3776157
Kentucky	South	2559168
Oklahoma	South	1709590
Maryland	South	1237854

As we have seen, a lot of honey was produced in the Midwest. And indeed, North Dakota was the main producer of honey between 1991 and 2017 and produced 16.83% oft he US honey yield (3,73 Mio kg honey). Here you can see what percentage of total honey from the years 1991-2017 contribute to the top 10 states.

The top 10 states are North Dakota (Midwest), California (West), South Dakota (Midwest), Florida (South), Montana (West), Minnesota (Midwest), Texas (South), Wisconsin (Midwest), Michigan (Midwest) and Idaho (West). California and Florida also make the biggest contribution to honey in their Region, so we’ll keep an eye on these states later. The top 10 States make out around 74% oft the total production amount in 26 years. The other 34 states account for only about 26% of honey production.

To view the other states, you can scroll through the table here.

Honey Production in 2017

What is the influence of states on honey production? This map shows you the amount of honey produced in 2017. The area of a honeycomb corresponds to 100,000kg honey (values rounded up each time) and was arranged geographically. North Dakota and California stand out but also Montana, Florida and Texas take a clear size on the map. New York produces a lot of honey, despite its size. As seen before in the table, New York is just on rank 11 as the biggest honey producer of its region. The size of California is roughly proportional when you look at a US map. North Dakota, on the other hand, produces a lot of honey depending on its average land area. Of course, the card is just a simplification to get a feel for the benchmarks.

The cartogram was created with tilegrams[7].

StateName	Region	numcol	totalprod_kg
California	West	10790000	288103767
North Dakota	Midwest	9560000	373016269
South Dakota	Midwest	6604000	231926798
Florida	South	5618000	204637317
Minnesota	Midwest	3748000	127105217
Montana	West	3528000	130721709
Idaho	West	2845000	59617014
Texas	South	2812000	94892897
Michigan	Midwest	2161000	68044307
Wisconsin	Midwest	1904000	64296273
Georgia	South	1877000	44640752
Washington	West	1668000	35875532
New York	Northeast	1630000	49212964
Nebraska	Midwest	1483000	44917897
Oregon	West	1453000	29829599
Louisiana	South	1081000	46936384
Wyoming	West	1073000	31339608
Iowa	Midwest	1057000	29723458
Arizona	West	1008000	27153857
Arkansas	South	1004000	34203591
Colorado	West	877000	24714437
Utah	West	799000	16188714
Pennsylvania	Northeast	663000	14513143
Ohio	Midwest	540000	15175388
Mississippi	South	477000	17467391
Missouri	Midwest	454000	12737783
Kansas	Midwest	379000	9710053
Alabama	South	344000	9193865
North Carolina	South	323000	7024786
New Jersey	Northeast	284000	4491472
Hawaii	West	265000	13045318
Illinois	Midwest	259000	6988952
New Mexico	West	255000	7061981
Maine	Northeast	252000	3842835
West Virginia	South	246000	5010836
Indiana	Midwest	240000	6326707
Nevada	West	204000	4580830
Virginia	South	200000	3776157
Tennessee	South	194000	4748206
Vermont	Northeast	146000	4409826
South Carolina	South	132000	3972562
Kentucky	South	116000	2559168
Maryland	South	75000	1237854
Oklahoma	South	68000	1709590

Amount of honey produced after regions

The US is very different, as are their bees. That’s why we look at what the bee world looks like in different regions. We can see that in all regions there has been a decreasing trend in honey production in the last 26 years (1991-2017). There is less and less honey produced, with some strong fluctuations. The northeast is the most stable region, but also produces the least amount of honey, as we saw in the beginning. Particularly dramatic is the honey yield in the west. And in the Midwest, where we found most bees and most honey before, annual honey production fluctuates most.

Number of honeyproducing colonies

If we compare that to the number of native honey bees in their colonies, we see a falling trend here as well. Here again the northeast is particularly stable. In 2004-2006, there was a strong impact on the number of bee colonies in the south and west. Fortunately, the numbers in the Midwest continue to rise since 2004.

Table

California was still in second place in the table with the top honey producers. However, in terms of bee colonies, California beats North Dakota and is the state with the most bee colonies. The table also confirms the two diagrams, in which the number of colonies and amount of honey are very similar.

numcol = Number of honeyproducing colonies, totalprod_kg = total production in kilogram

Honey - soon a luxus property?

We saw in the beginning that in the northeast of 2017 you had to pay up to $10 per kilogram of honey. It wasn’t always like this. In 1991, honey cost just a whopping $1,6 per kilo ($0,72 per pound) in the northeast and only $1,27 ($0,58 per pound) in the west. After 2003, the honey price decreased for two years about 50 cent. Since then it went steeply uphill - except for the West, where the honey price has fallen since 2012 as a mere back to just under a dollar to “today”.

Downtrend

Let’s take a look at the whole US and its honey. In the last 26 years, a clear trend has been seen from large colonies with high yields to large colonies with small yields. Thus not only the total honey production decreases, but also the respective yield of the colonies. The bee colonies are therefore weaker overall in their work. Between 2000 and 2009 it can be seen that the number of bee colony has decreased significantly but still a medium to high amount per colony was produced.

Dry spell

Now that we have looked at the different states and regions, we can now expect the overall situation around honey in the USA.

So you can see that after 220 million kilograms around 1991 now only about 150 million kilograms of the bees was produced. It is therefore to be expected that there will be less honey in the next few years. What could be the reason?

Risk for the bees

In a 2013, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has been assigned by the European Union to conduct scientific research to the impact of neonicotinoids on honeybees. The studies findings stated that “neonicotinoids pose an unacceptably high risk to bees” and that previous research commissioned by insecticide manufacturers contained inexplicable data gaps. In response, the use of certain neonicotinoids has been restriced and tightend up over the years. In 2014, the US government under Barack Obama issued a blanket ban against the use of neonicotinoids on National Wildlife Refuges. In 2018, the Trump administration reversed this decision.

Rise of the Neonicotinoids

The data shows a slight increase in use of neonic pesticides since 1994 and a strong rise starting in the early 2000s. At that time, besides imidacloprid, two other neonicotinoids, clothianidin and thiamethoxam, entered the market. After that point the amount of neonics applied rises drastically and only finally reaches a turning point in 2014, when neonicotinoids got restriced, and decreases by over 80%.

“Neonicotinoids (sometimes shortened to neonics /ˈniːoʊnɪks/) are a class of neuro-active insecticides chemically similar to nicotine.[…]
Imidacloprid is the most widely used insecticide in the world.[…]
Most academic and governmental bodies agree that neonicotinoids have had a negative influence on bee populations.” [Source: 1]

Midwest overflow

Looking back at the graph comparing honey production with pesticide use, it is noticeable that the Midwest has a huge impact on the total amount of pesticides used. The northeast, which has few colonies but also produces little honey, also does not use many pesticides. Since 2003, the use has hardly risen there. Try zooming in on the 1995-2005 section (dragging a box with the mouse). Here is interesting that the Midwest used the least pesticides until 2003 and then depends on all other states.

Pesticides for agriculture

The pesticides are mainly used for agriculture, which should protect the plants but also affect the bees. One can therefore assume that the northeast rather operates less agriculture. After 2014, there was obviously a significant decrease in pesticide use in all regions. And the midwest, which previously used huge amounts, uses less in 2015 than the southern states.

What did we learn?

• Most honey is produced in the midwest
• The northeast has the highest honey price while producing the least
• With 18.2 M kg since 1992, North Dakota is the #1 honey producer in the US

Our Advice

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Bee Species (Apis mellifera)
The bee species Apis mellifera, the western honeybee, is typically distributed in Africa, Europe and parts of western Asia (see picture above). In this habitat, there are numerous variations in the behavior, appearance and genetic code of the animals, which is why numerous sub-species have developed in the course of evolution that differ phylogenetically [8]. Three of these subspecies were discovered as part of the Machine Learning dataset in the United States.

Western bee (Apis mellifera)
“Most common of the 7-12 species. Like all honey bee species, the western honey bee is eusocial, creating colonies with a single fertile female (or”queen“), many normally non-reproductive females or ‘workers’, and a small proportion of fertile males or ‘drones’. Individual colonies can house tens of thousands of bees. Colony activities are organized by complex communication between individuals, through both pheromones and the dance language. Western honey bees are threatened by pests and diseases, especially the Varroa mite and colony collapse disorder”. [Source: 2]

Russian Honey Bee
“The Russian honeybee refers to honey bees (Apis mellifera) that originate in the Primorsky Krai region of Russia. This strain of bee was imported into the United States in 1997 by the USDA’s Honeybee Breeding, Genetics & Physiology Laboratory in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in response to severe declines in bee populations caused by infestations of parasitic mites, and has been used in breeding programs to improve existing stocks. Russian honey bees have an innate resistance to various parasitic mites. This strain occurs in the original native range of the varroa mite, and selective pressure could have favored bees that exhibited aggressive behavior against colony-level mite infestations. Accordingly, experimental research has found that mite populations decline in colonies of pure Russian[2] and of hybrid Russian-Italian bees. The mechanisms through which mite populations are controlled in these colonies include hygienic behavior towards mites, and possibly increased aggression towards mites. Russian stocks also have been shown to resist infection by tracheal mites.” [3]

Italian honey bee
“Apis mellifera ligustica is the Italian bee which is a subspecies of the western honey bee (Apis mellifera). The Italian honey bee is thought to originate from the continental part of Italy, south of the Alps, and north of Sicily. The subspecies may have survived the last Ice Age in Italy.[1] It is genetically a different subspecies than that from the Iberian peninsula and from Sicily. It is the most widely distributed of all honey bees, and has proven adaptable to most climates from subtropical to cool temperate, but it is less successful in humid tropical regions. It is sometimes called the Ligurian bee.Italian bees, having been conditioned to the warmer climate of the central Mediterranean, are less able to cope with the”hard" winters and cool, wet springs of more northern latitudes. They do not form such tight winter clusters. More food has to be consumed to compensate for the greater heat loss from the loose cluster. The tendency to raise broods late in autumn also increases food consumption." [4]

Carniolan honey bee
“The Carniolan honey bee (Apis mellifera carnica, Pollmann) is a subspecies of the western honey bee. The Carniolan honey bee is native to Slovenia, southern Austria, and parts of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. It is favored among beekeepers for several reasons, not the least being its ability to defend itself successfully against insect pests while at the same time being extremely gentle in its behavior toward beekeepers. These bees are particularly adept at adjusting worker population to nectar availability. It relies on these rapid adjustments of population levels to rapidly expand worker bee populations after nectar becomes available in the spring, and, again, to rapidly cut off brood production when nectar ceases to be available in quantity. Carniolan honey bees are about the same size as the Italian honey bee, but they are physically distinguished by their generally dusky brown-grey color that is relieved by stripes of a subdued lighter brown color. Their chitin is dark, but it is possible to find lighter colored or brown colored rings and dots on their bodies. They are also known as the ‘grey bee’.” [5]

Buzzing around in the US
In a study from 2018 that analyzed bees using machine learning videos and categorized them [c], different kinds of bee species were discovered at 7 locations:
1= San Jose, California
2= Saratoga, California
3= Alvin, Texas
4= New Orleans, Lousiana
5= Athens, Georgia
6= Des Moines, Indiana
7= Keene, New Hampshire

Which bees are in the US? In a study that analyzed bees using machine learning videos and categorized them, different kinds of bee species were discovered at 7 locations.
On the map all cities are visible and marked with an arrow where the species have spread. An exception is San Jose (Location 1), because no special kind could be categorized here. On the page “Species” you can find out more about the bee species.
The Italian honey bee is most commonly represented and has been found mainly in the southern states with the exception of California. This is followed by the Russian honeybee, which was in Indiana and New Hampshire. Also in Indiana the Carniolan honey bee whirred around. The Western honey bee was categorized only 37 times. It also represents more of a general group of the subspecies Russian, Italian and Carniolan honeybee. Of course, the numbers are only a tiny fraction of the US bees and by no means representative. But it does not provide any assessment of what to find in the US.

Bee threats

How are the bees, which were located in the seven cities in 2018, doing health-wise? [c] The state of health reveals numerous diseases that threaten some bees. Most bees are doing well in the first place (65%). However, 35% of the animals have to struggle with mites, ants, beetles, missing queens or robbed hives, etc and their health status is very poor. What are the diseases that can infect bees?

\(\color{#0174DF}{\text{Ant problems:}}\)
Ants in the hive are often an indicator for other problems and a weakened colony. Because normally, a healthy and strong population would keep ants away by itself. Ants use the space inbetween the stock to raise their young, in the part where it’s safe from bees. In case of ants travelling into the hive, an inspectation is needed. The ants could weaken the swarm even more and other, worse deseases are possible. Also new swarms need to be controlled regularly, because ants could take over the small colonies [10].

\(\color{#FE7A37}{\text{Hive beetles:}}\)
Originally, these black-brown beetles with clubbed antennae come from sub-Saharan Africa but are not only a pest to bees in their home environment. But here, they attack beehives and cause the majority of the beehive damage. They burrow into the bee combs and eat brood, honey and pollen. This food is the reason, why the bees settle up in the hives. With a strong invasion, the bees become “slimed out” and the colonie, in the worst case, dies because the contaminated honey ferments (no food for the bee larvae)[9].

\(\color{#FACC2E}{\text{Hive beeing robbed:}}\)
It can happen that other bees rob an weaker hive, which can be caused by drought conditons e.g. by a lack of nectar. This typically happens in fall or winter but in warmer conditions, this can also happen in spring. An indicator for robbery can be an increased activity infront of the hive and fights. It is important, that only worker bees fight, because the male bees (drones) need to stay in the hive for the winter. Bees fighting inside the hive is in all cases a sure sign, that another colony intrudes the hive [11].

\(\color{#00CCD0}{\text{Missing queen:}}\)
If the quee bee dies or is missing for a too long time, worker bees will start laying eggs. Since they are not fertile, they will only lay drone (male) eggs. Drones are not able to produce honey. Brood cells with drone larvae/eggs inside are rather raised than flat an spread all across the frame, not in a pattern. With less working bees, the population will sink until the hive is no longer able to keep itself alive [12].

\(\color{#77C145}{\text{Varroa:}}\)
Varroa mites are tiny parasites, that live on adult bees, but mainly on larvae and pupae from bees. Consequently, they weaken the bee in its development and also in the adult stage. You can notice them by the red-brown dots on the bee’s neck. If a hive has the parasitic mite syndrom, they usually show a abnormal breeding pattern, sunken and chewed caps, their lavae is often sunken to the bottom of the cell. The worstcase leads to a reduced honeybee population, whereafter the queens get replaced and the hive finally collapses to death[9].

Beekeepers can contact our partner the Exotic Plant Pest Hotline \(\color{red}{\text{📞1800 084 881}}\) in case of unusual bees or pests to get timely help for their bees. This way other bees and hives can be prevented from other sicknesses.

About BEE AWARE – Philosophy

Without bees, our crops would be a lot lower, not only for fruits and vegetables but also for plants like cotton. Bees play a key role in the supply chain of humans and animals. In terms of biodiversity, the diversity of species, bees, especially wild bees, play a central role. They are an integral part of a functioning ecosystem, from which life, as we know it, depends in many ways. Without pollen and nectar collecting bees we miss important flower pollinators. The use of pesticides, monocultures and other harmful environmental effects not only threatens the honey bee, more than half of all wild bees are endangered. The danger is recognized and there are already several smaller and larger companies to protect the bees. What is missing, however, is a pooling of forces, a strong, long-range campaign and a central communications platform to channel public attention to the protection of wild bees. For this purpose, “beeaware” makes strong and provides an explanation about the situation of bees in the US. This results in the initiative “beeaware”.

What is BEE AWARE doing?
“Beeaware” supports local and regional beekeepers in their education through a broad reach. In addition, it is represented on numerous honey products from retail, so interested citizens quickly and easily get up to date information and research results around the bee world. In addition, beeaware supports the distribution of flower seeds to protect and preserve the habitat of wild and honey bees. How do I recognize beeaware? You always recognize products supported by beeaware on our logo (see below). From there, a QR code always leads to our website!

What data uses BEE AWARE?

All datasets are hosted on kaggle.com and are provided by several institutions. The datasat about the honey production from 1998-2012 is provided by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), who is the primary data reporting body for the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Honey Production (1998-2012):
„In 2006, global concern was raised over the rapid decline in the honeybee population, an integral component to American honey agriculture. Large numbers of hives were lost to Colony Collapse Disorder, a phenomenon of disappearing worker bees causing the remaining hive colony to collapse. Speculation to the cause of this disorder points to hive diseases and pesticides harming the pollinators, though no overall consensus has been reached. Twelve years later, some industries are observing recovery but the American honey industry is still largely struggling. The U.S. used to locally produce over half the honey it consumes per year. Now, honey mostly comes from overseas, with 350 of the 400 million pounds of honey consumed every year originating from imports. This dataset provides insight into honey production supply and demand in America by state from 1998 to 2012.“

Honeybees and Neonic Pesticides:
This dataset is a combination by Honey Production in the USA, extended to the period 1998-2017. USGS’s Pesticide National Synthesis Project has provided more data which has been added to this dataset. Therefore an evaluation of the statistical connections between Honey Production and the use of Neonicotinoid (neonic) pesticides is possible.

The BeeImage Dataset: Annotated Honey Bee Images:
This dataset contains 5,100+ bee images annotated with location, date, time, subspecies, health condition, caste, and pollen. It is used for machine learning, to classify bees in these categories, paving the way for more intelligent hive monitoring or beekeeping in general.

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Credits

Datasets
[a]https://www.kaggle.com/jessicali9530/honey-production
[b]https://www.kaggle.com/kevinzmith/honey-with-neonic-pesticide
[c]https://www.kaggle.com/jenny18/honey-bee-annotated-images

Web Articles
https://www.greenpeace.de/sites/www.greenpeace.de/files/neonicotinoid_pesticides_final_single_web_final.pdf
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonicotinoid
[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_honey_bee
[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_honey_bee
[4]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_bee
[5]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carniolan_honey_bee
[6]https://www.honey.com/honey-industry/statistics/retail-honey-price
[7]https://pitchinteractiveinc.github.io/tilegrams/
[8]Sheppard, W.S., Meixner, M.D. (2003): Apis mellifera pomonella, a new honey bee subspecies from Central Asia. In: Apidologie 34, p.367-375 [9]https://beeaware.org.au/pests/ [10]https://www.honeybeesuite.com/ants-beehive-help-your-colony/ [11]https://backyardhive.com/blogs/managing-your-top-bar-hive/bees-robbing-a-hive [12]https://backyardbeekeeping.iamcountryside.com/health-pests/what-happens-when-the-queen-bee-dies/

Images
Global distribution map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_honey_bee#/media/File:Apis_mellifera_distribution_map.svg

Bee Aware Campaign

Informationsvisualisierung
RWTH Aachen

Founders
Anne Vollema
Tom Gerlach
© bee aware 2018
🐝🍯

An initiative of Bee Aware